First Time – Stars of the Valleys

Williamson and Sheppard Named Top Players

(St. Louis, MO) – Lucas Williamson and Ben Sheppard have added their names to the list of Stars of the Valleys. The Loyola grad student and Belmont junior had outstanding weeks and find their names highlighted in the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conferences’ weekly awards.

While some freshmen and newcomers are grabbing a stranglehold on their season-ending awards, the conference races are getting extremely tight.

Missouri Valley Conference

First place Loyola won a pair of games last week and Williamson was dynamic. The 6’4 wing scored a career-high 27 points against Illinois State and then led the Ramblers to a narrow win at Missouri State. Williamson’s 19-point, four rebound, five assist effort and his defensive work on the Valley’s leading scorer makes him the Valley’s ‘Player of the Week‘. MSU’s Isiaih Mosley was held to just 12 points and didn’t make a three-point basket.

(Williamson loves the ‘big games’. Hear our conversation after the Ramblers’ early season win over DePaul.)

Drake’s Tucker DeVries is running away with the Valley’s ‘Freshman of the Year‘ award. Monday he was honored as the ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ for the second straight time. He is the only freshman to have won that award this season. DeVries averaged 14.5 points and five rebounds in Drake’s two games.

Ohio Valley Conference

Belmont’s Ben Sheppard was unstoppable. After a solid 15-point performance against Tennessee State, the 6’6 guard racked up a career-high 41 points during Belmont’s thrilling overtime win at Tennessee Tech. Sheppard’s output was the best by an OVC player this year and earned him the ‘Player of the Week‘ award.

UT Martin’s K.J. Simon is a five-time winner of the ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ award. The Bethune-Cookman transfer scored 19 and 21 points during the Skyhawks two games. Simon is the OVC’s fourth leading scorer (16.7 ppg).

Three different players are being considered as the OVC’s ‘Freshman of the Year‘. Southern Illinois Edwardsville’s Ray’Sean Taylor is leading all freshmen in scoring average, but a recent knee injury has ended his season. Southeast Missouri’s Phillip Russell and Austin Peay’s Elijah Hutchins-Everett are the two other competitors.

Hutchins-Everett averaged 14.3 points and 4.7 rebounds during the Governors’ three games and is the OVC’s ‘Freshman of the Week‘. It’s an honor he has now received the last two weeks and four times overall.

The bright stars of the Valleys include outstanding first year OVC players. Russell has claimed the weekly honor four times and scored 35 points last night against SIUE. Prior to Taylor’s injury, he had received four of the weekly nods.

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